History's Biggest Bad Guys
Imperial Visions Ch.11
History’s Not About Good Guys and Bad Guys
It can be very tempting to look at current issues, look back on history, assign cause to a specific group and label them the bad guys.
This is a common issue today with Western Imperialism (for some reason way less common for Islamic imperialism) wherein people use the word ‘imperialist’ like a slur. It fits well with words like ‘bigot’ and ‘fascist’ . Why?
The same people shout about Trump being unelectable because he’s a threat to democracy and then turn around and shout about western imperialism being the root of all evil.
Western Imperialism Created Global Democracies
But Western Imperialism is exactly what brought democracy to the world. Nearly every country formerly a part of the British Empire now enjoys regular, free elections. Before Western Imperialism democracies were few and far between. And they were by no means a historical guarantee because the same cannot be said of countries under the former Muslim Caliphate.
This isn’t a defense of Western Imperialism. To the people whose families were enslaved and killed by the British Empire, the means were not worth the ends. But today, these countries are free to revoke their imperial roots and denounce Western values such as: democracy, human rights, liberalism, and feminism.
Why Not Renounce Britain
India could give up tea-drinking, cricket and free elections. They could also demolish their grand train station built by the British.
Indians could give up all the British influence but they don’t. Why?
Because every country taken into an empire adopts parts of their colonizers culture. That’s why you see Egyptians who claim to be Arab despite being born far from the Arabian Peninsula. They adopted the culture of their rulers and assimilated overtime.
Why do Egyptians still follow Islam and consider themselves Arab if the caliphate has been disbanded?
Because imperialism is simply a part of every country’s history. Today, it’s not good and it’s not bad. It’s history. For some reason we look at the bad parts of imperialism without considering what the country was like before arrival. One common example is the misconception that Americans established the slave trade in Africa.
Stop Comparing History To Modern Standards of Life
In reality, one reason they went to Africa was because of the existing slave market established by Middle Eastern powers. That point is not to excuse American slavery. It’s to bring light to the fact that when looking at bad actors in history, we never consider what the conditions were like before they arrived.
Another example is in India. If you look pre-British invasion, India was run by the Mughal empire who had a specific tax on non-Muslims. Were they bad? And before them was the Delhi Sultunate. Were they bad?
It’s easy to say good and bad if you compare standards to today’s industrialized countries. It’s harder when you compare it to the other realistic options at the time. Things have never been as good as they are now. People have never been as free. People have never been as equal. THAT is the landscape history falls upon.
Today
Everything good we have today is due in part to something unspeakably horrible from the past.
That’s why we need to be careful looking back on history and assigning labels like “good” and “bad”.
I still say the Holocaust was bad. And I recognize that probably without it I wouldn’t have a country to call my homeland. I guess I’m a bit of a hypocrite.
Question of The Day
What’s a historical event you think was bad? What good has come from it?
Your Friend,
Noah “BigNerd” Sochaczevski